I want a reggae pre-amp and would like it to have some sort of clip light or overload indicator on it if possible.
But I don't want to spend £600 on a mostec or JTS pre-amp. As I don't have much money. And would need it to work with my mixer [Allen and Heath Xone32]

Also I just sold a Aphex 204 bass enhancer cos it was making my amps for bass clip constantly and I thought it would fry the speakers if it kept on clipping. Would the parametric EQ on a reggae pre-amp give the same or better bass than a bass enhancer without making the amps clip easily?

Last but not least. Anyone selling a 2nd hand reggae pre-amp who lives in the UK?? Any type will do as long as it has parametric EQ's on it. Looking to pay anything btw: £200-£400 for a 2nd hand one.

P.S. I managed to get somewhere for me to play at again, thanks to my kind m8 whos gonna let me use my rig where he plays out . And for the other times, I might hire out Southhall Community Centre if its cheap to hire out.

How would one go about learning about this sort of thing. How to build amps and such. Is there schools for this sort of thing? Electronics Engineering I would guess? I don't really know anyone who could teach me, and I don't think teaching myself would be the best use of my time. Any suggestions?

I understand the need for preamps in certain cases but usually good quality mixers do have preamps and they rarely cannot be turned off unless ofcourse all turntables are inserted into line thru preamps. Is there particular reason for this to hook up the equipment like this? Are the preamps in standard dj mixers so poor ?

the preamp is made for sound system !! its not only a kind of mixer.
it has a 3 or 4 way cross over inbuilt,outplugs for bass, mid and top section, a 10 band equalizer, inplugs for your fx,mic and turntable,traditionnal dj mixer....etc....
you can do your sound system without the pre amp like JTS or Mostec....but you ll have to buy all kind of equipement separately doing what a pre amp do "all in one include"

as i am a techy noob, i would like to ask you specialists, what makes the good sound of a soundsystem. is it the boxes, the amp, the preamp?

does the preamp take a big part of how good the sound is like or is it more a connecter for all the stuff, like JM mentioned.

i´m planning to improve my sound at home and thinking about what is most important to get a great sound...at the moment i only have a yamaha hifi sourroundamp and a medium quality pionieer style djmixer and bad boxes with a active subwoofer...

mat wrote:as i am a techy noob, i would like to ask you specialists, what makes the good sound of a soundsystem. is it the boxes, the amp, the preamp?

of course all elements are very important....its not only the preamp that make a good sound...or the boxes or amp...the whole elements are essential to have a good sound
the pre amp is the "control tower" where you regulate all the parametrics of your sound when you play
i dont have a preamp myself but as im buildin a sound at the moment im planning to buy one in a near future... dont know if i ll go for mostec, jah tubbys or even other pre amp....so any good advices are welcome !

"as i am a techy noob, i would like to ask you specialists, what makes the good sound of a soundsystem. is it the boxes, the amp, the preamp? "

the operators experience and a good ear !

of course having good amps and speakers, and the boxes they come in, as well as a good control setup will make things easier, but you gotta know what your doing and you`ve got to have an ear to get that out of the system... like everything its all practice, like you can`t expect to pick up a bass guitar and start playing like robbie shakespeare the same day, or year !...you need to learn, understand and practice at your skill of operating a sound system...as another point in regards to playing music, productions from different era`s and from different studio`s will need adjusting individually from tune to tune, pre-amps that are built by reknowned and experience reggae sound builders are set with enuff controls to be able to do this and at the right frequencies, and all in one box.... play with substandard equipment and you can only expect substandard sound !

maybe im thinking about this too much or something but a "reggae" pre amp? what the hell is that?

and an overload indicator on a preamp? i dont think preamps overload. amplifiers overload. you should have overload indicators on your amplifiers if your ears dont tell you when they are being overdriven (if they dont its a sure sign your ears are blown out or youre used to hearing mud and distortion so much you think its normal)

using a mix board as a preamp is ok but you get best sound with separate components, with each made for and performing a specific task.

if you want good sound, get electronic crossovers and bi-amp, tri-amp or quad-amp your system. put lots of watts to your bottoms (woofers and/or subwoofers) and you dont need much (relatively speaking) for your mids and highs.

in answer to another question, your system will sound as good as its weakest link. with solid electronics, that usually comes down to your speakers and boxes as the weakest link.